Deer Creek Campground, Buffalo WY

Cons: Not all sites have fire pits, very small camp store, “no frills”.

Overview:

Deer Park is located in Buffalo, Wyoming near the Bighorn Mountains. If you are fan of the Netflix series, Longmire, you know exactly where this city is located. This campground is located within a few miles of downtown. It hosts 79 sites including a few cabins. Some of the sites are very close to one another. We lucked out. We stayed at site 42, which was fairly spacious and near the pool. Deer Park includes primitive tent sites, water/electric, full hook-up, 50 amps, pull-thrus and cabins. Our site cost $42/night with our 10% off Good Sam discount. Cable was available including 24 channels. In addition, there was Wi-Fi and the signal was fairly reliable. The campground had laundry facilities that were available 24 hours a day. The camp store was very limited. Ice was available for $2 (7lb bag) and firewood at $6 per bundle. However, only certain sites had firepits and as I write this review (7/19/16), there is a fire ban in this area. Checkout time is 11:00 a.m.

Appearance

The roads and sites of Deer Park consist of gravel. Though the campground is located off of Highway 16, there is relatively no highway noise. There was not dumpster for garbage, rather metal garbage cans. The problem with that is if I throw away my 20-gallon garbage bag it would take up most of that can. We are not sure why there was no central dumpster. As mentioned before, some sites (pull thrus) were very close together. With slide outs and awnings out, there was little space for “privacy”. The best way to describe Deer Park would be a “no frills” campground. It was well maintained for the most part but nothing fancy as far as landscaping. In the front of the campground, there was a nice nature walk. Behind our campsite was a ranch. Sometimes horses would come up to the edge of the fence line. That in combination with the beautiful sunsets made a nice ambiance. Near the camp office, there were nice flower baskets.

Rating: (One to five lanterns with 5 being the highest)

Family/Pet Friendly

Continuing the theme of “no frills” campground, activities within the Deer Park were limited. The campground had a very basic playground for the kids (just a swing set with two swings) and horseshoes. However, no basketball court, volleyball court, putt-putt, or game room. The pool was clean, however, a bit small and it closes at 8:00. As for dog lovers, there is no fenced-in dog area, yet there was room where Deer Creek could add one. On the positive side, there was a nature trail in the front of the campground. Our dogs loved it! Every evening, Deer Creek hosted an ice cream social. Two scoops for $1.50.

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Area Attractions

We stayed at Deer Creek for a number of reasons. First, this was a good stopover on our way to Yellowstone from Mt. Rushmore. Second, we wanted to explore the Bighorn National Forest (http://www.fs.usda.gov/bighorn) and the Bighorn Mountains. There is lots of hiking and scenic driving in the area. Finally, being diehard fans of the Netflix series, Longmire, we wanted to visit the city where it is filmed. We did not make it to the city’s festival, Longmire Days, unfortunately. During this festival in July, cast members of the show sign autographs and meet with fans. We did however, have dinner and a few drinks at the famous Western hotel/restaurant called The Occidental. If you make it to Buffalo, you have to check it out (http://www.occidentalwyoming.com/). Busy Bee Café is another place to check out. Downtown Buffalo has antique shops, souvenir shops, and sports stores offering fishing and hunting supplies.

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Restrooms

Deer Creek has one bath house centrally located behind the camp office. You can tell they take pride in their bathrooms because they were exceptionally clean. Showers offered good water pressure but there was very little space, only two hooks, and the water was luke warm at best. This was disappointing.